WASHINGTON — A House panel will hold a hearing next month on the Chevrolet Volt and the Obama administration’s investigation into fire risks in the extended-range electric vehicle.

The announcement came as Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Tuesday he believes the Volt is safe. He denied that the government withheld news of a fire in a crash-test vehicle to protect Detroit-based General Motors Co, reported The Detroit News.

“I believe the Volt is safe to drive,” LaHood told reporters after testifying before lawmakers on an unrelated matter.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Tuesday that one of its panels plans to hold a hearing in late January on the Volt battery issue, according to committee spokesman Jeff Solsby.

The hearing by the committee’s panel on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending also will look at the government’s investigation into fire risks.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the subcommittee panel, said he wanted to know if the government had been candid about its investigation into the Volt.

“It gives us great concern that recent reports indicate important safety information may have been omitted in testimony before our committee just a few weeks ago,” Jordan said in a statement. “This is a serious situation that our committee will look further into.”

The committee held a hearing on fuel economy standards and heard from officials of the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Questions weren’t asked about safety problems with the Volt.

GM spokesman Greg Martin had no comment on the hearing.

Conservative commentators have sharply criticized the Volt and the government’s investigation, asserting the Obama administration was trying to protect GM. As part of a $49.5 billion bailout, the Treasury still holds a 26.5 percent stake in GM.

LaHood said the government wasn’t trying to protect GM by not immediately disclosing a fire in a crash-tested Volt.

“We’re not in the business of protecting the auto industry. We’re in the business of making sure cars are safe,” LaHood said.

Last month, NHTSA opened a preliminary investigation into the extended-range electric vehicle for fire risks after two fires in Volt battery packs.

One fire happened on Thanksgiving, seven days after a battery pack was crash-tested.

The first was in early June, three weeks after a May 12 NHTSA Chevrolet Volt crash test in Wisconsin.

The blaze burned three other cars. NHTSA didn’t disclose the initial fire — or the fact it had sent letters to automakers asking questions about battery electric vehicles — until early November, when Bloomberg News reported the incident.

NHTSA hasn’t asked GM to stop selling the Volt. It has no reports of real-world fires or complaints.

GM has offered loaner vehicles and has agreed to buy back cars.

General Motors is working on upgrades to the Volt battery containment system to prevent a fire from occurring days after a crash.

Legendary car guy Bob Lutz is adding yet another job to his already lengthy auto industry resume.

Lutz, 79, is joining VIA Motors to help develop its next-generation of electric trucks, vans and SUVs, the company said in a release Monday morning, reported The Detroit News.

A former General Motors Co. product chief, Lutz oversaw development of the industry’s first mass market electric car, the Chevrolet Volt.

Earlier this month, GM announced Lutz would return to the company as a part-time special adviser after retiring in 2010.

VIA Motors statement didn’t specify what exactly Lutz will do for VIA Motors; a spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached for additional comment.

Lutz, in a statement, called pickup trucks the “work horse of America” and said he believed VIA’s electric trucks will be a “game changer.”

Lutz’s career in the auto industry spans 47 years and includes executive posts at Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Group LLC and BMW.

WASHINGTON – In a new report, a blue-ribbon panel says the United States is unlikely to meet President Barack Obama’s goal of getting 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 — a finding disputed by at least one environmental group, The Detroit News reported.

The Indiana University panel says the government will have to take further steps to boost the young industry.

“The production intentions of automakers are currently insufficient to meet the 2015 goal, and even the current plans for production volume may not be met,” the report released Wednesday said.

Roland Hwang of the National Resources Defense Council’s Transportation Program counters that 1 million vehicles is achievable and notes some forecasts suggest reaching the goal remains possible.

Even so, 1 million electric vehicles would account for just a third of a percent of all U.S. vehicles, at best, by 2015.

The United States has more than 250 million cars and trucks on the roads and less than 5,000 electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles in use.

Hybrid sales still account for less than 3 percent of U.S. auto sales, and the government on Dec. 31 let tax incentives expire for gasoline-electric hybrids.

Since launching sales about two months ago, General Motors Co. has sold 650 plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volts, and Nissan Motor Co. has sold about 100 electric Leaf vehicles.

The report called for a national demonstration program of electric vehicles, including focusing on a limited number of communities — five to 20 — to help ramp up infrastructure.

The White House proposed last week to nearly double the Energy Department’s vehicle research budget to $590 million; $200 million would be used to award up to $10 million to as many as 30 communities to ramp up electric vehicle infrastructure.

Just over a decade ago, electric cars were expensive niche vehicles for gadget lovers and celebrities. Now, Nissan and General Motors are competing to sell the most affordable electric car to middle-class America, The Associated Press reported.

The contest escalated Tuesday when GM announced it would start the Chevrolet Volt at $41,000. While it costs $8,000 more than the base price of Nissan’s Leaf electric hatchback, GM is matching the $349-per-month lease deal that Nissan is offering on its car. Nissan Motor Co. countered by matching the Volt’s eight-year, 100,000-mile battery warranty.

Both vehicles will cost more than a comparable gasoline-engine car when they hit showrooms this fall. But their lease deals are competitive with regular cars. That reflects the overall decline in the cost of the cars’ technology over the past decade. Even if the automakers have to eat some of the costs, they can still afford to keep the Volt and Leaf within many families’ budgets.

The average U.S. new-car payment is about $450, so most new-car buyers can afford a $350 lease, especially when they factor in what they won’t pay for gas, said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends at the car pricing website TrueCar.com. General Motors Co. said it would cost about $1.50 worth of electricity to fully recharge the Volt each night.

“The middle-income family in Ohio cannot afford $41,000 plus tax to get a Volt, Toprak said. “But $350 a month is within reach.”

Lease and base sticker prices for both models are far lower than earlier electric cars. GM’s EV-1, the first widely available electric car, was leased for $477 a month in 1996.

While celebrities such as Mel Gibson and Ed Begley Jr. touted the car’s green appeal, GM had trouble getting most people to take the two-seat cars, which had a sticker price of roughly $44,000. The project was canceled after four years and only about 800 leases. One of the few broadly available electrics now on the road is the Tesla Roadster. But it costs $109,000, well out of reach of mainstream buyers.

For those who buy the Leaf or Volt, the two cars also are eligible for a federal tax credit that will cut their prices by $7,500. The Volt’s price would fall to $33,500 while the Leaf’s would drop to $25,280 — from $32,780. Some states, such as California, Georgia and Oregon, offer additional tax breaks that will lower the price further. The federal government will phase out the credits when each manufacturer sells 200,000 electric cars.

GM expects to sell 10,000 Volts in the first year and Nissan said it already has 17,000 orders for the Leaf.

General Motors Co., the largest U.S. automaker, will sell its Chevrolet Volt for a starting price of $41,000 and lease terms similar to those on Nissan Motor Co.’s Leaf electric car, Bloomberg reported.

The Volt will be leased for $350 a month with a $2,500 down payment, Detroit-based GM said in a statement. Lessees for the Leaf pay $1 less a month and are required to put down $1,999.

The Volt will sell for a premium over the all-electric Leaf, which is scheduled to go on sale in November for $32,780. The Volt’s lease price and longer driving range on a single charge and tank of gasoline will make it a better choice for most drivers, Joel Ewanick, GM’s vice president of U.S. marketing, said today.

“They’re looking for transportation that will give them no anxiety,” Ewanick said on a conference call. “We’re positioning this as a car first and electric second.”

The Volt’s price includes the $720 freight charge. Tony DiSalle, director of product marketing for the Volt, said GM can offer a lower lease rate than Nissan’s Leaf because the company will have a better resale value than its rival car.

The Volt can travel 340 miles on a tank of fuel, with the first 40 in electric drive before a gasoline engine starts to recharge the battery. The Leaf uses no fuel and can travel about 100 miles on a charge.

GM’s customer research found that car buyers are most worried that they would be stranded if their electric car’s battery ran out of power before they get home, Ewanick said.

The company has set up a website where customers can find a dealer and place an order. The automaker also will have a live phone line staffed 24 hours a day, every day to answer questions about the car.

If there is a waiting list, the company will provide buyers with updates about their place in line and their expected wait. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG used a similar system when it introduced the Mini brand in the U.S. in 2002.

The Volt will initially be sold this year in California and then move to parts of Texas, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Washington, D.C. Next year, GM will build 10,000 of the cars and 30,000 in 2012, the company said.

The company has said the Volt will get 230 mpg. The official rating may be different than that figure, Ewanick said.

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has said he plans to sell 500,000 electric cars annually worldwide by 2012. Both cars will be eligible for U.S. government subsidies of $7,500.

Companies such as Automotive Leasing Guide, which sets residual rates, are likely to give a car like the Volt a higher value because it has better range and could find more buyers in the used-car market, said Jim Hall, principal with consulting firm 2953 Analytics Inc, in Birmingham, Mich. Not all buyers can qualify for a lease, so it may not be a large portion of sales, Hall said.

Electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc. generated the second-best initial public offering gain of the year Tuesday, even as the broader market fell sharply, The Wall Street Journal.

Tesla’s ability to rise 41 percent against a backdrop of plummeting stock indexes wasn’t the only sign of high demand for the initial public offering. It also bucked a trend of new companies cutting the prices of their IPOs in the past several months amid stock-market volatility, and was able to sell its shares at a level above its expected range. Some IPO hopefuls haven’t been able to complete their deals and have shelved them for the time being.

Tesla’s IPO was expected to appeal to both clean-energy investors and car geeks, but its strong first-day showing isn’t an indication that all new stocks will be embraced as warmly. Earlier this month, another highly anticipated IPO from options exchange CBOE Holdings Inc. priced well and gained 12 percent on its debut, but the group of new issues that followed in its wake had mixed results in pricing and trading.

Tesla closed at $23.89 on the Nasdaq, up $6.89 from its IPO price of $17. Its 41 percent gain was the second-best debut from an IPO in the U.S. this year, behind the nearly 44 percent pop that Financial Engines Inc. experienced in March.

Tesla sold 13.3 million shares at a price above its expected range of $14 to $16. The size of the deal was also boosted Monday, with Tesla selling 11.1 million shares and current owners offering the rest. Among the sellers were Chief Executive Elon Musk, whose stake will fall from 36 percent to as little as 28 percent after the IPO.

The company, named for scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla, has been selling its all-electric Roadsters for nearly two years and is still the only company selling highway-capable electric vehicles to consumers in volume.